Oil on canvas, 12 x 20 inches, 1881, signed and dated, in a period gilt frame. As a young man, Johnson was a sailor and one of only twelve survivors aboard a ship that caught fire and sank of the coast of South Africa. He returned to his native Boston, Massachusetts, and studied art with marine painter William E. Norton. Johnson went on to become very well known for his nautical and marine paintings in the later part of the 19th century.